Granite is a very hard kind of rock made up of small pieces of mica, quartz and felspar and sometimes other rocks as well. There are many kinds of granite and they may be pink, grey or white. But the most striking thing about granite is that the pieces of rock from which it is made are all crystalline and shine like a wall of snowflakes.
One city in Scotlandcalled Aberdeen is known as the silver city, because of the way the granite from which it is built shines in the sun.
This rock is widely used for building, and is especially useful for large engineering jobs such as the making of breakwaters. Not only does it stand up well to the weather but, unlike many other rocks, it can be quarried in huge slabs. It is also used as an ornamental stone after being polished to a smooth surface.
Granite is found all over the world and forms part of most of the world’s mountain ranges. There is a city in the State of Illinois called Granite City, while the Mountain State of New Hampshire on the eastern side of the United States is called the Granite State on account of the granite quarries there.
You may have heard the expression “granite features” used to describe persons. This means that they have cold, hard faces, like a granite rock.
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